Great Fortunes from Railroads
Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Before setting out to relate in detail the narrative of the amassing of the great individual fortunes from railroads, it is advisable to present a preliminary survey of the concatenating circumstances leading up to the time when these vast fortunes were rolled together. Without this explanation, this work would be deficient in clarity, and would leave unelucidated many important points, the absence of which might puzzle or vex the reader.
Although industrial establishments, as exemplified by mills, factories and shops, much preceded the construction of railroads, yet the next great group of fortunes to develop after, and along with, those from land were the fortunes plucked from the control and manipulation of railroad systems.
Under the first stages of the old chaotic competitive system, in which factory warred against factory, and an intense struggle for survival and ascendency enveloped the whole tense sphere of manufacturing, no striking industrial fortunes were made.
Fortunate was that factory owner regarded who could claim $250,000 clear. All of those modern and complex factors offering such unbounded opportunities for gathering in spoils mounting into the hundreds of millions of dollars, were either unknown or in an inchoate or rudimentary state. Invention, if we may put it so, was just blossoming forth. Hand labor was largely prevalent. Huge combinations were undreamed of; paper capitalization as embodied in the fictitious issues of immense quantities of bonds and stocks was not yet a part of the devices of the factory owner, although it was a fixed plan of the bankers and insurance companies.
The factory owner was the supreme type of that sheer individualism which had burst forth from the restraints of feudalism. He stood alone fighting his commercial contests with persistent personal doggedness. Beneath his occasional benevolence and his religious professions was a wild ardor in the checkmating or bankruptcy of his competitors. These were his enemies; he fought them with every mercantile weapon, and they him; and none gave quarter.
Gustavus Myers
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HISTORY OF THE GREAT AMERICAN FORTUNES
VOL. II
I. THE SEIZURE OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
PART III
CHAPTER I
THE LAGGING FACTORY FORTUNES.
MIGHT OF THE RAILROAD OWNERS.
THE LEGALIZING OF CUNNING
THE LAND LAWS AGAINST THE POOR
VAST TRACTS SECURED BY BRIBERY.
GREAT EXTENT OF THE LAND FRAUDS.
THE SWAYING OF GOVERNMENT.
GRANTS TO CANAL CORPORATIONS.
THE GRANTS FRAUDULENTLY MANIPULATED
CASH THE GREAT PERSUADER
A WELTER OF CORRUPTION.
IMPOTENCE OF THE PEOPLE.
VAST THEFTS OF LAND.
SPOLIATION ON A GREAT SCALE.
THE "CASH SALES" ACT.
COAL LANDS EXPROPRIATED
AN ARRAY OF COMMANDING FACTS.
CHAPTER II
GOVERNMENT BY PROPERTY INTERESTS.
CONDITIONS OF THE NON-PROPERTIED.
THE SUPREMACY OF EMPLOYERS.
AN INCESSANT WARFARE.
THE WORKERS' STRUGGLE FOR BETTER CONDITIONS.
EMPLOYMENT OF MILITIA AGAINST THE WORKERS.
CAJOLING THE LABOR VOTE.
THE BASIS OF POLITICAL PARTIES.
WEALTH AND THE SWAY OF DIRECT POWER
THE PASSING OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
THE TRUSTS AND THE UNEMPLOYED.
THE STATE OF THE FARMING POPULATION.
METHODS OF THE GREAT LANDOWNERS.
SEIZURE OF IMMENSE AREAS BY FRAUD.
ACTUAL SETTLERS EXCLUDED FROM PUBLIC DOMAIN.
THE GIGANTIC PRIVATE LAND CLAIM FRAUDS.
FORGERY, PERJURY AND FRAUDULENT SURVEY.
INCREASE OF FARM TENANTRY.
A LARGELY DISPOSSESSED NATION.
CHAPTER III
NINETY MILLIONS IN FIFTEEN YEARS.
A FORTUNE OF $700,000,000
BONDS THAT HOLD PRESENT AND POSTERITY.
THEY DECREE TAXES AT WILL.
AND EXERCISE UNRESTRAINED POWER.
HIGH AND MIGHTY POTENTATES.
THE FOUNDER'S START.
DRIVING OUT COMPETITORS.
REGARDED AS A COMMERCIAL BUCCANEER.
EXTORTION AND THEFT COMMON.
THE CORRUPTION OF OFFICIALS.
VANDERBILT'S HUGE LOOT.
BLACKMAIL CHARGES TRUE.
HE QUITS STEAMSHIPS.
CHAPTER IV
THE ANSWER FOUND.
INDISCRIMINATE PLUNDERING DURING THE CIVIL WAR.
PATRIOTISM AT A SAFE DISTANCE.
VANDERBILT'S METHODS IN WAR.
HORRORS DONE FOR PROFIT.
FRAUDS REMAIN UNPUNISHED.
THE STORY OF A FRANCHISE.
VANDERBILT GETS A RAILROAD.
THE ALDERMEN OUTWITTED BY VANDERBILT.
HE ANNEXES A SECOND RAILROAD.
CUNNING AGAINST CUNNING.
ACQUISITION BY WRECKING.
CHAPTER V
GOULD OVERREACHES VANDERBILT
A NEW CONSOLIDATION PLANNED
ALARM OF THE TRADING CLASS
A LEGALIZED THEFT OF $44,000,000
VANDERBILT AND HIS CRITICS.
THE WISDOM OF GRAND LARCENY.
HE CONTINUES THE BUYING OF LAWS
PUBLIC FUNDS FOR PRIVATE USE
"REFORM" AS IT WORKS OUT.
VANDERBILT'S CHIEF OF STAFF
REPRESSION BY STARVATION.
THE SERMONIZING OF THE "BEST CLASSES."
"HONESTY AND INDUSTRY" ANALYZED.
LABOR'S PRINCIPLES IGNORED.
CHAPTER VI
VANDERBILT'S CHARACTERISTICS.
THE OLD MAGNATE'S DEATH.
THE RISE OF THE FIRST TRUST.
CORPORATE WEALTH AND LABOR UNIONS.
THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1877.
FRAUD BECOMES RESPECTABLE WEALTH
MORE RAILROADS ACQUIRED.
THE SEQUEL TO A "GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT."
HE EXPANDS IN SPLENDOR.
A SUDDEN TRANSFORMATION.
"THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED."
ADDS $100,000,000 IN SEVEN YEARS.
HIS DEATH A NOTABLE EVENT.
HIS FRAUDS IN EVADING TAXES.
HIS WILL TRANSMITS $200,000,000.
CHAPTER VII
THE GREAT LABOR MOVEMENT OF 1886
THE HAYMARKET TRAGEDY.
JUDICIAL MURDER OF LABOR'S LEADERS.
THE LABOR UPRISING IN NEW YORK.
CAPITALIST TRIUMPH BY FRAUD.
THE LABOR PARTY EVAPORATES.
THE SMALL CAPITALISTS' LOSING FIGHT.
SEIZING RAILROADS AND COAL MINES.
AND THE WAY IN WHICH IT WAS DONE.
THE DICTATION OF THE COAL FIELDS.
THE BITUMINOUS COAL MINES ALSO.
THE HUGE PROFITS FROM THE COAL MINES.
CHAPTER VIII
AN $8,000,000 AREA CONFISCATED.
PUBLIC TAXATION TO SUPPLY PRIVATE CAPITAL.
A MULTITUDE OF ACQUISITIONS
THE BOSTON AND ALBANY RAILROAD BECOMES THEIRS.
THE GOVERNMENT AN ENGINE OF TYRANNY.
MACHINE GUNS FOR THE OVERWORKED.
TEN MILLIONS FOR A DUKEDOM.
DIVERSITY OF THE VANDERBILT POSSESSIONS.
THE SORT OF ABILITY DISPLAYED.
CHAPTER IX
JAY GOULD'S BOYHOOD
HE GOES INTO THE TANNING BUSINESS.
HE BUYS RAILROAD BONDS WITH HIS STEALINGS.
WHY THIS BIASED VIEW OF GOULD'S CAREER?
THE TEACHINGS OF HIS ENVIRONMENT.
A SPECIMEN OF GOULD'S TUITION.
PATRIOTISM AT FIFTY PER CENT.
CHAPTER X
THE SECOND STAGE OF THE GOULD FORTUNE
PRIVATE CONFISCATION OF THE ERIE RAILROAD.
THE SPECULATOR, DREW, GETS CONTROL.
GOULD AND HIS PARTNERS FLEE WITH MILLIONS.
GOULD BRIBES THE LEGISLATURE WITH $500,000.
GOULD AND FISK THROW OVER DREW.
ALLIANCE WITH CORRUPT POLITICS AND JUDICIARY.
GOULD'S TRADING CLASS SUPPORT
GOULD'S DIRECTORS BRIBED TO RESIGN.
THE LEGISLATURE BRIBED AGAIN.
GOULD'S DIRECT ERIE THEFTS WERE $12,000,000.
AN EXTRAORDINARY "RESTITUTION."
THE SECOND STAGE OF THE GOULD FORTUNE
CHAPTER XI
THE ABUSE OF GOULD OVERDONE
GOULD EMBARKS ON HIS CONSPIRACY
HE BRIBES GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.
GOULD BETRAYS HIS PARTNERS.
THE MEMORABLE "BLACK FRIDAY"
ELEVEN MILLIONS POCKETED BY JUDICIAL COLLUSION.
THEIR PRESENT WEALTH TRACED TO FRAUD.
THE CLUBBING OF THE UNEMPLOYED.
CHAPTER XII
THE MISLEADING ACCOUNTS HANDED DOWN.
SECTIONAL INTERESTS IN CONFLICT.
A MYTH OF MODERN FABRICATION
CONGRESS BRIBED FOR THE UNION PACIFIC CHARTER.
THE CREDIT MOBILIER JOBBERY.
GREAT CORRUPTION AND VAST THEFTS.
THRIFTY, SAGACIOUS PATRIOTISM.
THE BRIBERY PERSISTENTLY CONTINUES.
JAY GOULD COMES FORWARD